"What shall we do? We don't want to stay here all day," said Morgan.
"It is just as dangerous to go back as it is to go forward," I replied.
"Forward it is, then," added Morgan. "I don't want to be shot in the back, if I am to be shot at all."
As my companion did not suggest a plan of operations, unless the proposition of Plunkett to run away may be regarded as such, I endeavored to solve the problem myself. The formation of the island, like many others in the Mississippi and Missouri, was peculiar. Its surface was a gradual slope from the point where we had landed to the up-river end, which was a bluff of considerable height. On the most elevated portion grew the tallest of the trees, which gradually diminished in size, till at the lower end they were mere bushes. The current of the river beating against the upper end washed away the earth, and carried the soil to the lower end, leaving an annual deposit there.
From the high ground the water had gullied for its passage a channel to the lower end. As the descent was considerable, it was dry except during heavy rains. This gully in the part of the island where we had halted was about four feet deep. Farther up and lower down it was less than this. In leading the way up to Mr. Gracewood's house, I had followed this channel, and when we stopped, I had taken shelter behind a tree on the side of it, whose roots reached into it. The Indians were some distance from the gully, which led, in a sinuous course, within a few rods of the house.
"I am going to do something," said I, when I had arranged a plan to take advantage of the shelter the gully would afford me. "I will follow this channel up till I can got a good shot at the Indians. When I fire, you do the same."
"Don't be rash, Phil," said Morgan, who perhaps thought he ought to perform the perilous work of the expedition; but really one place was just as safe as the other.
"I will take care of myself," I replied. "Twenty rods farther up the gully I shall be in position to see behind the trees where the Indians are. I shall bring down one of them then."
"All right, Phil; but the Indians will see you when you leap into the gully," added Morgan.
"I shall run the risk of that. If you will do the same, we can make a sure thing of it."